5-2 Blog Post

The second half of Making All Black Lives Matter begins with the murder of Freddie Gray. The aftermath was an explosion from the Black community. Brittney Cooper, an African American college professor, had this to say: “No, I don’t support looting. But I question a society that always sees the product of the provocation and never the provocation itself. I question a society that values property over black life. But I know that our particular system of law was conceived on the founding premise that black lives are white property.” What she said about provocation struck a chord with me because, every time there is a disaster concerning an African American, society sees the repercussions but refuses to get to the source of the problem. The latter half of the book discusses the challenges surrounding the BMM movement, a shift away from the individual tragedies. What I thought was interesting was what was discussed regarding state violence against transgender/non-gender conforming African Americans. “...state violence against transgender and gender-nonconforming Black people have also been issues around which BLMM/M4BL groups and individuals have organized, making visible some of the most vulnerable members of our communities and confronting homophobia and transphobia in the process.” I believe this is significant because, when you think of state violence, you (at least, I) never considered state violence against transgender/non-conforming individuals. “Freedom Inc.’s “Hands Off Black Womyn” campaign successfully fought for the release of a number of Black people who were incarcerated because they were gender nonconforming, sex workers, or defending themselves against sexual or domestic violence.” In my opinion nobody should be incarcerated for any of those reasons, and it raised suspicion in me about the true extent of systemic racism in our country.

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